Fabrication of reusable and low-cost sers substrate for explosives detection

Surface-enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) is a highly sensitive and powerful analytical technique for molecular identification and analysis and is used in various fields. SERS uses the plasmonic effect on the surface of specific substrates, such as grating plasmonic, to enhance the Raman signal of the sample. However, the fabrication of grating structures as substrates is challenging and often comes with high costs. This research presents an approach to address this challenge by developing a low-cost SERS substrate using DVDs as a grating-based substrate coated with gold thin film. The fabricated substrate will be used as a SERS substrate to detect explosives: trinitrotoluene (TNT), Tetryl, Research Department Explosive (RDX), and pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN). According to our research, the concentration of explosives that can be detected is up to 0.01M for TNT, PETN, and Tetryl and 0.1M for RDX. Furthermore, a reusability test was conducted for the SERS substrate from DVD by cleaning the substrate using an acetone solution. Based on the results of the reusability test, the substrate can be reused up to three times. The periodicity of grating used is 713 nm, the thickness of the gold thin film used is 50 nm, and the depth of grating is 29.43 nm.